With the advent of digital photography, consumers are amassing large collections of digital images and videos. As a consequence, the organization and retrieval of images and videos is already a problem for the typical consumer.
Descriptors of a photographer, such as biometric data, can be detected or recorded in an image capture device such as a digital camera. Information related to the capture (either the identity of the photographer, a demographic description of the photographer, or information related to the activity of the camera such as stationary) is useful for retrieving specific images or videos from a collection.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0235411A1 discloses an imaging apparatus wherein a biological recording device records biological information of a photographer and subsequently uses this information to control the imaging apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,433,818 describes a camera with built-in apparatus for acquiring measured biometric data of a potential user, comparing it with corresponding biometric signature data entered in the camera, and permitting camera operation only if there is a match. This function provides security and prevents unauthorized access to the data stored on the camera, thereby discouraging theft.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0080256A1 describes a digital camera with built-in apparatus for biometric identification of the photographer and for recording the identification of the photographer of an image. Furthermore, this feature can be used to discourage theft or piracy of the camera. Preferably, an image of the photographer's iris is captured to determine the identity of the photographer.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,574,054 describes a method of identifying objects of interest in an image once the identity of a photographer is known. This is accomplished, for example, by knowing that a particular photographer often captures images or videos of boats. Then, the likelihood that future image or video captures will contain boats is high.
Images and videos captured with a handheld device often contain jitter resulting from normal hand tremor. For a single image, hand jitter results in a blurry image. Long exposures and zoom lenses can exacerbate the problem of image blur. For videos, hand jitter results in a shaky or wobbly video that can be visually objectionable.
Measurement of and correction for hand jitter has been studied in the prior art. Hand jitter occurring in a single image can be described through a point spread function, which represents the spread of a point source of light during an image capture. Deconvolution techniques, such as the well known Richardson-Lucy algorithm, attempt to estimate and undo the effects of the point spread function occurring during image capture. Deconvolution algorithms can attempt to estimate the point spread function based on image content. Alternatively, accelerometers present in an image capture device can provide information on the motion of the capture device during the capture period.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,133,070 describes a method for predicting the maximum exposure time that can be employed by a person with average hand tremor without causing noticeable blur in the final image.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,580,620 describes a method for removing blur in an image including fluttering a shutter open and closed during an overall exposure period, in a manner that permits accurate estimation of the point spread function associated with the overall image capture.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,619,656 describes a method for removing blur in an image including capturing secondary images along with a primary image, wherein motion is estimated among the secondary images to provide an estimate of the point spread function associated with the overall image capture.
Hand tremor occurring during a video capture is typically characterized by considering the overall camera motion during the video capture, and subtracting from that the component of the camera motion that is considered intentional. Such intentional motion could be, for example, a camera pan. Accelerometers present in a video capture device can provide information on the motion of the camera during the video capture. Alternatively, digital motion estimation techniques can be applied to frames of video data to compute the global camera motion occurring between frames.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,809,758 describes a method for automatic stabilization of an image sequence by computing global motion estimates for each image, filtering the time series of global motion estimates to determine unwanted motion, and stabilizing each frame relative to a reference frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,707 describes a method of compensating for jitter during a video sequence that combines an optical magnification with an electrical magnification to produce a constant total magnification. The amount of data cropped from the initial sensor data is varied based on how shaky the video is and much room is needed to compensate for the shake. The amount of cropping determines the amount of electrical magnification required. The amount of optical magnification is adjusted to ensure that the total magnification, and thus the field of view, remains constant.